day, but also records the names of sixteen of these styles for posterity. Prior
to Ming times, boxing had only been mentioned in generic terms. Writings
by several other Ming-period authors further raise the number of known
styles to about thirty-six. These writings also offer insights into boxing
techniques such as changquan (long fist) and duanda(short hitting), and
they reveal a number of related boxing skills, including pofa (breaking),
jiefa (escaping), nafa (seizing), and diefa (falling), some of which could be
categorized as independent fighting systems, which show a striking simi-
larity to Japanese jûjutsu.
According to the Ming History(Zhang 1936), boxing was even in-
cluded in the official military examinations toward the end of the Wanli era
(1573–1620), possibly in recognition of General Qi Jiguang’s successes. Qi
realized that boxing, in itself, was not particularly useful in battle, but that
it was a confidence builder and provided the necessary foundation for ef-
fective use of the traditional weapons with which most of his troops were
armed.
During this same period, some monks from Shaolin Monastery vol-
unteered individually and in groups to help fight pirates. They were known
to have practiced boxing, but no specific style of boxing was named for the
monastery. Their main claim to fame lay in their skill with iron staves, and28 Boxing, Chinese
Chinese children in a martial arts class in Beijing, November 1997. (Karen Su/Corbis)